In 1983, 1985, 1987–1988 and 1994, rescue archaeological excavations of the historical center of the annalistic town of Starodub (modern Russian – Ukrainian borderland) were conducted. These studies ...revealed a low-power Old Rus cultural layer, which was covered by the cultural layer of the XVI – middle of the XVIII century. This layer contained the fire traces of the Starodub War period (1535) and the remains of a fortress, erected on the site of a fire by decree of Elena Glinskaya. The remains of wooden fortifications unique to the region have been preserved. These are the “brama” (gates) of the Bastion Probitoy and remains of a wide earthen rampart with a log palisade and lattice klets (store-rooms) inside. In addition, part of the wooden pavement in the state sazhen is also studied. Starodub fortress is interesting because it combines: 1. European planning (it is one of the first earthen fortresses with bastions in the territory of Muscovy), 2. The wide earthen ramparts with a palisade on a slope (typical for Cossack fortifications in the Dnieper region). 3. Chopped towers in the so-called "simplified Russian style". Due to the building work at the site, it was not possible to preserve and museumification of the discovered wooden unique constructions.
The port city of Yafo was fortified during much of its four millennia of existence. However, today, even its most recent Ottoman walls are dismantled, and only fragmentary parts of its earlier ...fortifications have been traced despite decades of research and salvage excavations on the mound and its environs. These limited discoveries cannot provide a comprehensive delineation of any pre-Ottoman defensive lines. Nevertheless, new discoveries, the mapping of scattered sites, comparative observations and consultation with historical sources can shed some light on Yafo’s otherwise obscure fortifications through its many phases, as well as on various related issues. Through these we may gain new perspectives and a better understanding of the convoluted history of this ancient port.
During a pioneering aerial survey of the Near East in the 1920s, Father Antoine Poidebard recorded hundreds of fortified military buildings that traced the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire. Based ...on their distribution, Poidebard proposed that these forts represented a line of defence against incursions from the east. Utilising declassified images from the CORONA and HEXAGON spy satellite programmes, the authors report on the identification of a further 396 forts widely distributed across the northern Fertile Crescent. The addition of these forts questions Poidebard's defensive frontier thesis and suggests instead that the structures played a role in facilitating the movement of people and goods across the Syrian steppe.
In the Andean highlands, hilltop fortifications known as pukaras are common. Dating predominantly to the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450), pukaras are important to archaeological ...characterisations of a political landscape shaped by conflict but the distribution of these key sites is not well understood. Here, the authors employ systematic satellite imagery survey to provide a contiguous picture of pukara distribution on an inter-regional scale covering 151 103km2 in the south-central highlands of Peru. They highlight the effectiveness of such survey at identifying pukaras and capturing regional variability in size and residential occupation, and the results demonstrate that satellite surveys of high-visibility sites can tackle research questions at larger scales of analysis than have previously been possible.
The north coast of Peru is among the most extensively surveyed regions in the world, yet variation in research questions, sampling strategies and chronological and geospatial controls among survey ...projects makes comparison of disparate datasets difficult. To contextualise these issues, the authors present a systematic survey of satellite imagery focusing on hilltop fortifications in the Jequetepeque and Santa Valleys. This digital recontextualisation of pedestrian survey data demonstrates the potential of hybrid methodologies to substantially expand both the identification of archaeological sites within difficult terrain and, consequently, our understanding of the function of defensive sites.
Archaeological narratives have traditionally associated the rise of social and political ‘complexity’ with the emergence of agricultural societies. However, this framework neglects the innovations of ...the hunter-gatherer populations occupying the Siberian taiga 8000 years ago, including the construction of some of the oldest-known fortified sites in the world. Here, the authors present results from the fortified site of Amnya in western Siberia, reporting new radiocarbon dates as the basis for a re-evaluation of the chronology and settlement organisation. Assessed within the context of the changing social and environmental landscape of the taiga, Amnya and similar fortified sites can be understood as one facet of a broader adaptive strategy.
The Veronese fortified site, a UNESCO heritage site, has in recent years been the subject of important digital documentation, unique in the Verona area. The research was an opportunity to verify a ...process whose technological developments in the field of heritage documentation have offered significant opportunities for the survey of architecture both in the metric data acquisition phase and in representation and dissemination. The study is part of the research project "Verona Fortificata", born in 2015 thanks to the collaboration between the Universities of Florence and Pavia and the Municipality of Verona. The aim is to focus on what has been obtained from a sort of "resulting product" of the classical survey and the consequent possibility of its use to provide preliminary but essential data for the Municipality's assessment of the actual Buffer Zone of the UNESCO site, of the visual impact of both the monument and the extraneous elements that are nevertheless part of the context.
Excavated by Leslie Alcock in the 1950s, the inland promontory fort of Dinas Powys is widely cited as a type site for elite settlements of post-Roman western Britain. Alcock's interpretation and ...dating of the main defences as a Norman-period castle were effectively disproven in the 1990s, but the excavator's original chronology continues to be cited. Here, the authors present a revised chronology, integrating new radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis to re-evaluate the history of occupation. The new phasing redates the main defences to the early medieval period, which aligns with the site's notable early medieval assemblage. The findings contribute to understanding of post-Roman western Britain and the (re)occupation of late antique hilltop sites more generally.
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